Partisan ‘memo’ fight deepens as Democrats prepare response

The partisan fight over the investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign links to Russia is expected to deepen today when a key congressional committee will decide whether to release a Democratic response to a Republican memo undermining the FBI’s use of surveillance powers.

Mr Trump and his supporters say the publication of the four-page memo on Friday vindicated the president and provided evidence that he was the subject of a witch hunt.

But yesterday, Adam Schiff, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s This Week that his Republican colleagues intended their memo to discredit the investigation.

“The interest wasn’t oversight,” he said.

“The interest was a political hit job on the FBI in the service of the president.”

The furore over the memo is part of a larger political fight over the federal criminal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in an attempt to sway the 2016 presidential election.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is also investigating whether Mr Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry.

Democrats have drafted their own response rebutting the memo’s claims.

The House Intelligence Committee will meet today to decide whether to declassify the Democratic memo, which Democrats say highlights flaws and other shortcomings in the Republican account.

Meanwhile, speculation continues that Mr Trump is considering firing either Mr Mueller or Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.

Dick Durbin, the second most senior Democrat in the Senate, told CNN’s State of the Union that such a move would “precipitate a constitutional crisis”.

The four-page document released on Friday contends that the FBI, when it applied for a surveillance warrant on a Trump campaign associate, relied excessively on a former British spy whose research was funded by Democrats.

At the same time, the memo confirms that the investigation into potential links between Mr Trump and Russia actually began several months earlier and was triggered by information involving a different campaign aide.

Christopher Steele, the former spy who compiled the allegations, acknowledged having strong anti-Trump sentiments. But he was a “longtime FBI source” with a credible track record, according to the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Devin Nunes.

The warrant authorising the FBI to monitor former campaign adviser Carter Page was not a one-time request. It was approved by a judge on four occasions, and even signed off by the second-ranking official at the Justice Department, Rod Rosenstein, who Mr Trump appointed as deputy attorney general.

Mr Trump posted on Twitter on Saturday, from Florida, where he was spending the weekend, that the memo puts him in the clear.

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe,” he wrote. “But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on.”

The memo confirms the investigation into potential links between Mr Trump and Russia began months earlier